Nepal PM Oli takes Covishield vaccine

Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli took the Covishield coronavirus vaccine on Sunday, as the Himalayan nation gears up to start phase II of its immunisation drive in which all persons above 65 years will be inoculated.

Oli and wife Radhika Shakya received the Covishield jabs at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital on Sunday morning.

The Covishield vaccine was developed in a collaboration between Oxford University and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. It is manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute of India.

After getting the vaccine, Oli asked all senior citizens in the country to get the vaccine jabs, saying they are safe with no side-effects.

Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel, Health Minister Hridayesh Tripathi and Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali also received the coronavirus jabs on Sunday.

As part of phase II of the vaccination drive, the Nepal government will cover all persons over the age of 65 years in the country, which is around 1.6 million senior citizens.

In the first phase of the vaccination programme, health workers, security personnel and journalists were inoculated.

The coronavirus has claimed 3,010 lives, along with over 270,000 confirmed infections, in the Himalayan nation,. according to the Johns Hopkins University.